Browse content similar to 22/03/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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latest headlines from BBC World news this morning. Time for World | :00:04. | :00:14. | |
:00:14. | :00:17. | ||
A warm welcome, you are with World Business Report. Here are the | :00:17. | :00:23. | |
headlines: Brace for strike - Portugal's largest union vows to | :00:23. | :00:26. | |
bring the country took a downturn in protest against austerity | :00:27. | :00:31. | |
measures. Preparing for a slowdown - outputs | :00:31. | :00:41. | |
:00:41. | :00:45. | ||
in Chinese factories slows for a Portugal it is bracing itself for a | :00:45. | :00:50. | |
general strike, the second since it negotiated a 78 billion euros bail- | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
out last April. The protest is against sweeping austerity measures | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
imposed in return for the financial aid. The industrial action is | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
already affecting transport in the country. At the heart of the debate | :01:03. | :01:06. | |
is the drive towards flexible and less generous employment terms | :01:06. | :01:11. | |
which have come as a shock to almost 500,000 people in state jobs. | :01:11. | :01:18. | |
Our correspondent has more. This is the working life many fear | :01:18. | :01:26. | |
could be theirs if they do not try and defend what they have. This man | :01:26. | :01:33. | |
works casual cafe shifts. Last month he took over 250 euros, | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
leaving on a Jaguar is to live on after rent. His dream is to finish | :01:37. | :01:43. | |
his studies, but the cafe it is closing due to lack of business. He | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
is now looking for fruit-picking jobs overseas. I have sent e-mails | :01:47. | :01:53. | |
to Denmark and other countries because they pay very well. My goal | :01:53. | :02:00. | |
right now is to be able to survive. I am not exactly living, I am | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
surviving. Meanwhile a response to the strike may show the degree to | :02:04. | :02:10. | |
which ordinary Portuguese will accept these new realities. The | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
largest union he can manage a show of strength, but it does not enjoy | :02:13. | :02:19. | |
a wholesale support. By the unions have grudgingly accepted the need | :02:19. | :02:25. | |
for things like a loss of holiday bonuses and more work flexibility. | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
Two-thirds of voters had chosen parties that support the austerity | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
measures. The politicians he exploited feelings of disillusion | :02:33. | :02:41. | |
and despair. -- few politicians here. It is the next few months | :02:41. | :02:51. | |
:02:51. | :02:52. | ||
The strike in Portugal comes as fears grow that it will need | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
another financial bail-out. The government has firmly denied that. | :02:55. | :03:00. | |
The economy is expected to contract by 3.3% this year. Unemployment | :03:00. | :03:10. | |
:03:10. | :03:10. | ||
reaches record levels. We must be to an Economist. What is your | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
outlook for Portugal? The jury is out, isn't it as to whether it will | :03:14. | :03:21. | |
need another bail-out or not? the previous bail out, it was | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
foreseen that Portugal would return to financial markets in 2013 and | :03:25. | :03:29. | |
would be able to finance itself. If you look at what interest rates are | :03:29. | :03:36. | |
doing right now. They are much higher than what they were four or | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
Italy, Ireland or Spain. Financial markets are not convinced that | :03:39. | :03:46. | |
Portugal will actually make it. It has a high public debt to GDP, its | :03:46. | :03:50. | |
private sector is extremely high as well and there is an inflexible | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
economy that needs to be reformed. The government is trying to tackle | :03:54. | :04:00. | |
all three at the same time. Having said that, it is tackling it and | :04:00. | :04:07. | |
many on the outside, including those who represent the union, said | :04:07. | :04:09. | |
they are doing the best possible job they can to meet austerity | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
measures. It seems that even though they are doing the best they can, | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
it is very difficult with the Portuguese economy as it is for it | :04:17. | :04:26. | |
to move on. That is absolutely right. First of all, Portugal is an | :04:26. | :04:36. | |
extremely closed economy, C cannot rely on exports to help. If you | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
look at the example of Sweden at the beginning of the 1990s, they | :04:39. | :04:44. | |
also had a lot of public debt as well as private debt. First they | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
reduced private debt through structural reforms. Then in the | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
second phase they started to reduce the public debt. Portugal is trying | :04:51. | :04:56. | |
to do everything at the same time, making it difficult. If you look at | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
average GDP growth for world economy since 2002, Portugal is | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
among the bottom three in the growth league worldwide. It does | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
need to do something about its economic growth and it does need to | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
carry out structural reforms. The only question is when we will | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
actually see the results of these reforms? That is crucial to | :05:14. | :05:22. | |
Portugal. In the next few months, as our correspondent said, we need | :05:22. | :05:26. | |
to watch Portugal closely to see whether it will be heading for a | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
second bail-out or whether it will manage to avoid that and be in a | :05:30. | :05:37. | |
place where it can come back to the markets in 2013? Coming back to the | :05:37. | :05:45. | |
markets in 2030 might be his dream eight difficult. -- 2013. I do not | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
think that Portugal will go the same way as Greece. His political | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
institutions are much more stable. Coming to the markets again might | :05:53. | :06:03. | |
:06:03. | :06:09. | ||
A survey measuring manufacturing activity in China is showing output | :06:09. | :06:14. | |
shrinking for a fifth month in a row. The HSBC purchasing managers' | :06:14. | :06:20. | |
index fell to 48.1. Any number below 50 indicates contraction. It | :06:20. | :06:26. | |
is based UN data compiled from monthly replies to questionnaires | :06:26. | :06:31. | |
to purchasing executives. The official figures will be released | :06:31. | :06:37. | |
next week. We go live to Beijing to speak to an associate professor | :06:37. | :06:44. | |
from a university's School of Economics. Give us your take on | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
this latest news about what factories are doing it in China. | :06:48. | :06:55. | |
The fact that they are still seeing a contraction. China's economy is | :06:55. | :06:59. | |
in a slowdown. It has been in a slowdown since at least November. | :06:59. | :07:04. | |
What these numbers are telling us is that it is across the board. A | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
lot of people outside of China are focused on the negative impact of | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
the eurozone crisis, declining demand from Europe and sluggish | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
demand from the US on its exports from China. The numbers are telling | :07:16. | :07:20. | |
us that it is part of the picture. Another part of the picture is a | :07:21. | :07:29. | |
slowdown taking place within China, driven by domestic issues such as | :07:29. | :07:39. | |
the severe downturn in property. There is also a lot of concern | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
about mounting bad debt in the system and the impact that has on | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
the ability to finance further growth. What would be of Verity's | :07:47. | :07:53. | |
do about this. The Premier race at the promised economic fine-tuning | :07:53. | :07:59. | |
to get China on a more sustainable growth path. Fine-tuning is the key | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
word. I do not think that we will see what a lot of people on the | :08:02. | :08:09. | |
market were to see, which is a big stimulus. One of the reasons is | :08:09. | :08:13. | |
because one of the numbers in the index suggested that prices were | :08:13. | :08:20. | |
not dropping, that inflation may not be raging, but it is persistent. | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
Chinese authorities have to be concerned that if they pour money | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
into the economy, they could see a spike in inflation. The other thing | :08:27. | :08:32. | |
is do you really want to pour money into the economy to fund more empty | :08:32. | :08:37. | |
buildings, more infrastructure projects that do not pay back, more | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
overcapacity in steel and other industries? Not necessarily. Even | :08:42. | :08:48. | |
though the markets might want to see that kind of growth, somebody | :08:48. | :08:53. | |
taking a longer term perspective on the economy might see the downturn | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
has a good thing. If it represents a real economic adjustment and not | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
just more of the same. We'll leave it there, thank you for giving your | :09:02. | :09:08. | |
take on what is happening in China. A lot of stories and economic news | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
impacting the markets today. Normally when we hear news of | :09:12. | :09:15. | |
contraction in China the markets get very spit about that. As you | :09:15. | :09:23. | |
can see, they are fairly flat. South Korea is the only one slowing | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
slightly. We did not see a huge reaction to that story, which is | :09:28. | :09:38. | |
:09:38. | :09:38. | ||
quite interesting. The dollar-yen always has an impact on the trade | :09:38. | :09:42. |